SE: K-State WBB Assistant Coach Ebony Haliburton Looks to Pour Personal Lessons Back into Wildcats
Jul 08, 2019 | Women's Basketball, Sports Extra
By Corbin McGuire
Sitting near a beach in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, for a three-day vacation a few weeks ago, Ebony Haliburton wrote personal messages on the back of more than 10 postcards. Each was to thank a coach she had in the past.
Entering her first year as an assistant coach for K-State women's basketball, Haliburton cannot overstate the weight that title carries for her.
"It's a big deal to have a student-athlete call you coach. It's not anything you take lightly," she said, adding this: "Because of the coaches, people and mentors who have loved me, I know one thing: I can't do anything unless I love first."
The love of others, namely coaches, helped propel Haliburton into her coaching career. One of eight children in her family, she did not always grow up in the best of circumstances, but she did grow up with people looking out for her.
Gary Brown one was one of the first. She said Brown, a local youth coach in the Kansas City area "took her under his wing" and "poured so much in me."
"Now," she added, "I'm able to pour that back."
Before her sophomore year of high school, Haliburton transferred to St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park, Kansas, where Janet and Jon Koch, parents of an AAU teammate, took her in and became her second family.
Haliburton blossomed as a player for the Saints, receiving several prestigious honors that included being named the Johnson County Defensive Player of the Year as a senior. More than anything, however, she said she matured because of those coaches and mentors around her.
St. Thomas Aquinas High School head coach Rick Hetzel was among this group. Haliburton said she remembers "butting heads" often with him as a player, but she's heard his praises more often in more recent years.
"He said (recently), 'Ebony, I'm so proud of you,' and he's not a man who gives a lot of compliments," she said. "I see now what he was putting inside of me. It's humbling to be a coach that has been coached and realize how patient people have been with you. It's my reasonable service to be patient with people."
To this day, she's continued to realize different ways coaches like Hetzel impacted her. Thus, the postcards.
"The things they were trying to get you to receive, sometimes it takes a little time to receive it, but the beautiful thing about life is once you come to realize what they were teaching, it ignites the love you once had for them again," she said, "and then you can pour that into somebody else."
Along with the lessons learned from the positive people in her life, Haliburton can also pour from the painful moments that have sometimes filled her life.
One of her brothers was shot and killed before she graduated high school. She also lost her grandmother, whom Haliburton said raised her from a young age. In 2012, Janet Koch passed away.
"Those things, with death, and growing up the way I grew up in poverty and seeing some of the things I watched with my own eyes, those things are painful but, at the same time, those are things that have helped shape and push me into who I am," Haliburton said. "So, when I have an athlete that has pain, if they're from a small town like Frankfort or if they're from a big city like Chicago, I'll be able to say, 'Come here, it's OK. We can get through this.'
"Pain does not have a color. Pain does not have a social economic class. Pain can hit anyone at any time on any day. I'm just thankful I've been equipped and I've continued to grow to be able to love people through some of the things they're going through."
Haliburton has dealt with several other aspects of being a college basketball player as well.
For example, she understands the world of transfers well. She started her collegiate career at Kansas in 2002, transferred to Cowley County Community College for one season and finished her career with two seasons at Oral Roberts.
Unknowingly, this path prepared her well for her first job out of college. For three years, she worked for College Coaches Network (CCN), which helps high school students navigate their college search process.
"I loved it," she said. "I was blinded and didn't know that my experience was actually going to put me into a place where I was destined to be and had purpose behind it because of the experiences I had."
From there, Haliburton returned to her roots in Kansas City, Missouri. She coached at Central High School and was even featured in an award-winning documentary, City Ball, which now serves as another reminder to why she coaches.
"To go back and be, like, 'Wow, this is why I do what I do: To build and add and be an asset to people's lives, not just players but anybody I come in contact with," she said. "It's just what I was born to do."
Haliburton eventually rejoined Jerry Finkbeiner, her head coach at Oral Roberts, at Utah State as the director of women's basketball operation. After three seasons at USU, she jumped to UC Irvine to become an assistant coach for the 2016-17 season.
Then, an opportunity as K-State's director of student-athlete development became available. Haliburton can still remember the first conversation she and K-State head coach Jeff Mittie had after he picked her up from the Manhattan Regional Airport. It still rings true more than two years later.
"Coach Mittie picked me up in the airport and I said, 'Yeah, I live right by the ocean.' He said, 'I'm going to tell you now, Manhattan doesn't have an ocean,'" Haliburton said, smiling about what she's going to say next. "Manhattan may not have had an ocean, but the feeling I get from Manhattan, it feels like I'm living on the ocean. Because I love the ocean, just the peace and the serenity. And the peace that I have had since I've been at K-State, it's a blessing."
Sitting near a beach in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, for a three-day vacation a few weeks ago, Ebony Haliburton wrote personal messages on the back of more than 10 postcards. Each was to thank a coach she had in the past.
Entering her first year as an assistant coach for K-State women's basketball, Haliburton cannot overstate the weight that title carries for her.
"It's a big deal to have a student-athlete call you coach. It's not anything you take lightly," she said, adding this: "Because of the coaches, people and mentors who have loved me, I know one thing: I can't do anything unless I love first."
The love of others, namely coaches, helped propel Haliburton into her coaching career. One of eight children in her family, she did not always grow up in the best of circumstances, but she did grow up with people looking out for her.
Gary Brown one was one of the first. She said Brown, a local youth coach in the Kansas City area "took her under his wing" and "poured so much in me."
"Now," she added, "I'm able to pour that back."
Before her sophomore year of high school, Haliburton transferred to St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park, Kansas, where Janet and Jon Koch, parents of an AAU teammate, took her in and became her second family.
Haliburton blossomed as a player for the Saints, receiving several prestigious honors that included being named the Johnson County Defensive Player of the Year as a senior. More than anything, however, she said she matured because of those coaches and mentors around her.
St. Thomas Aquinas High School head coach Rick Hetzel was among this group. Haliburton said she remembers "butting heads" often with him as a player, but she's heard his praises more often in more recent years.
"He said (recently), 'Ebony, I'm so proud of you,' and he's not a man who gives a lot of compliments," she said. "I see now what he was putting inside of me. It's humbling to be a coach that has been coached and realize how patient people have been with you. It's my reasonable service to be patient with people."
To this day, she's continued to realize different ways coaches like Hetzel impacted her. Thus, the postcards.
"The things they were trying to get you to receive, sometimes it takes a little time to receive it, but the beautiful thing about life is once you come to realize what they were teaching, it ignites the love you once had for them again," she said, "and then you can pour that into somebody else."
Along with the lessons learned from the positive people in her life, Haliburton can also pour from the painful moments that have sometimes filled her life.
One of her brothers was shot and killed before she graduated high school. She also lost her grandmother, whom Haliburton said raised her from a young age. In 2012, Janet Koch passed away.
"Those things, with death, and growing up the way I grew up in poverty and seeing some of the things I watched with my own eyes, those things are painful but, at the same time, those are things that have helped shape and push me into who I am," Haliburton said. "So, when I have an athlete that has pain, if they're from a small town like Frankfort or if they're from a big city like Chicago, I'll be able to say, 'Come here, it's OK. We can get through this.'
"Pain does not have a color. Pain does not have a social economic class. Pain can hit anyone at any time on any day. I'm just thankful I've been equipped and I've continued to grow to be able to love people through some of the things they're going through."
Haliburton has dealt with several other aspects of being a college basketball player as well.
For example, she understands the world of transfers well. She started her collegiate career at Kansas in 2002, transferred to Cowley County Community College for one season and finished her career with two seasons at Oral Roberts.
Unknowingly, this path prepared her well for her first job out of college. For three years, she worked for College Coaches Network (CCN), which helps high school students navigate their college search process.
"I loved it," she said. "I was blinded and didn't know that my experience was actually going to put me into a place where I was destined to be and had purpose behind it because of the experiences I had."
From there, Haliburton returned to her roots in Kansas City, Missouri. She coached at Central High School and was even featured in an award-winning documentary, City Ball, which now serves as another reminder to why she coaches.
"To go back and be, like, 'Wow, this is why I do what I do: To build and add and be an asset to people's lives, not just players but anybody I come in contact with," she said. "It's just what I was born to do."
Haliburton eventually rejoined Jerry Finkbeiner, her head coach at Oral Roberts, at Utah State as the director of women's basketball operation. After three seasons at USU, she jumped to UC Irvine to become an assistant coach for the 2016-17 season.
Then, an opportunity as K-State's director of student-athlete development became available. Haliburton can still remember the first conversation she and K-State head coach Jeff Mittie had after he picked her up from the Manhattan Regional Airport. It still rings true more than two years later.
"Coach Mittie picked me up in the airport and I said, 'Yeah, I live right by the ocean.' He said, 'I'm going to tell you now, Manhattan doesn't have an ocean,'" Haliburton said, smiling about what she's going to say next. "Manhattan may not have had an ocean, but the feeling I get from Manhattan, it feels like I'm living on the ocean. Because I love the ocean, just the peace and the serenity. And the peace that I have had since I've been at K-State, it's a blessing."
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